San Bernardino Unified to Open In-Person Instruction in August

The San Bernardino City Unified School District will open all schools beginning August 2^nd, 2021.

All schools will provide in-person instruction five days a week at full capacity with safety measures to protect the health of students and staff according to district’s website.

Students have been distance learning since schools closed in March of 2020.  Other school districts began optional in-person learning beginning in April of this year, but San Bernardino Schools have remained with distance learning with no changes announced until last week.

Students will automatically be enrolled for in-person education at their school of record.  Parents can choose to “opt out” of in-person instruction for their children by joining the District’s Virtual Academy which will still provide 100 percent instruction via distance learning.

While the jury is still out on the effectiveness of the distance learning engaged by California Schools since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, the evidence from national teacher and parent surveys has created expectations that achievement gaps have widened, particularly for African American and Hispanic students, who make up the majority of the San Bernardino City Unified student population.

While schools in other states began reopening last fall, California will be one of the last to reopen for in-person instruction.  The ramifications of these school closure policies have not been detailed, and California has waived standardized testing for the current school year.

The San Bernardino School District has already begun a number of town hall activities to roll out the coming school year and parent’s options.  A “Roadmap to Reopening Guidebook” will be available in late June or early July to help families and SBCUSD staff prepare for returning to in-person learning. A task force is also being developed to review the Roadmap to Reopening Guidebook.

Further information is available on the School District website at https://www.sbcusd.com/cms/one.aspx?portalId=59953&pageId=36986853.